09/04/15 – Yearly Reminder about Importance of Annual Meeting

September 4, 2015 Athletic Department Blog Updates

This is a great time of year. The school year has started, the fields and courts are in use every night, and we get to continuously hear about the great things done by our student-athletes, coaches, officials and member schools. And again this year, we are privileged to have in the midst another circuit around the state holding regional meetings about KHSAA operations, online data management, and Title IX.

But now it’s time to deal with some of the “business issues” surrounding the KHSAA. And a lot of that business is accomplished through the Annual Meeting on Thursday, September 10. It’s earlier than normal this year, primarily due to the availability of the venue, so we hope it hasn’t caught you off guard and you didn’t miss the notice from a few weeks ago. If you have yet to sign-up to attend this meeting, please go to the post at http://khsaa.org/081815-reminder-about-2015-annual-meeting-of-the-membership-of-khsaa/ and refresh yourself on the procedures. If you have signed up, be sure and check the listing on the website ( (General/Regulations, Annual Meeting, 2015-16) and make sure we have received your delegate information and are ready to go.

Truth be told, other than the championship final events and recognition ceremonies, this event remains one of my personal favorites. Our staff gets to sit down and meet with those people in the trenches at the local schools and listen as you talk about issues facing us, both now and in the future. Our philosophies and perspectives can be different, so too naturally are our opinions.

This two-part article will attempt to first lay the groundwork for the meeting, and then secondarily, it will discuss in a little more detail in the second edition, each of the three proposals to be considered at the KHSAA Annual Meeting on September 10 which have been posted on the KHSAA website (General/Regulations, Annual Meeting, 2015-16, Information on Proposals and Procedural Rules).

The Board of Control is required, per Section 2 of 702 KAR 7:065, to review the rules of the KHSAA and recommend any changes to the membership. As Commissioner, many of these initiatives come from our staff based on year round input from our membership and study, and are thoroughly reviewed by the Board over a series of about six months worth of meetings and discussions. While it would be nice to have the luxury of leaving the rules alone for a length of time, such is simply not possible. And certainly this is not the time for us to fight long and hard to maintain the 1985 status quo. That would certainly not be in everyone’s best interest.

It is very difficult in one or two lines of rationale, to fully describe the hours and days of thought and discussion that goes on among the membership, among the Board of Control and among the staff, before a proposal actually makes it to the agenda. In this year alone, more than a dozen subjects were considered, with the Board choosing to author only two proposals, and the membership submitting only one additional proposal. And when the membership considers each proposal, we are hopeful that you are mindful that these proposals must be approved by our membership but then have a long way to go to be implemented, including final approval by the legislature in Frankfort. While the few proposals may be viewed in a lot of ways, I think if we all are candid, this is a time of “reorganization” and turnover in administration in many of our schools, and there will come a day soon when much more will be considered once everyone gets together, sorts things out, and charts a course for the future. 

The vast majority of the legislature (Kentucky General Assembly), I am sure, would rather deal with the more serious issues they fight every day in Frankfort than to get involve with athletics. Success and achievement in the General Assembly many times turns on compromise while most in athletics feel there has to be a winner and a loser. These two diverse schools of thought mean that sometimes, everyone won’t agree. Such was the case in the mid-2000s, when the membership of the KHSAA discussed various proposals which would have either 1) segregated its championships based on school types, or 2) controlled the eligibility of high school students based on the type of middle school the student attended. To say that neither of these options was looked upon favorably by the General Assembly members would be a tremendous understatement. While those troubled waters have calmed for these past few years, this started the Association and its member schools down a path wherein everything about the daily operations (including the eligibility rules) continue to be subject to increased scrutiny. And for that reason, you see nothing “frivolous” on the agenda, only issues which merit serious discussion.

In the next segment, I will share with you background on the three specific proposals on this year’s agenda. In the meantime, be sure and refer to past blogs and emails, or go to the website and click General/Regulations, Annual Meeting, 2015-16 and see the information about this year’s meeting, including the designation of a delegate.